On Sunday, the 100th day of the war between Hamas and Israel, Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah gave a dejected and somber speech in commemoration of last Monday’s assassination of Hezbollah’s top military officer, Wissam Tawil, alias Jawad, who played a leading role in directing military operations in southern Lebanon.
After several minutes of eulogies in tribute to Wissam Tawil and to the families of the fighters “who sacrificed themselves for the Resistance,” the leader of the pro-Iranian militia turned his attention for an hour to the latest developments in Gaza, Yemen, and the southern Lebanese border, indicating that he did not know how long the period of tension in the south with Israel would last or when the war in Gaza would end. “The main declared and undeclared aims of this war waged by Israel are total control of Gaza, the invasion of Palestinian territory, the forced displacement of Palestinians, and the installation of settlers throughout the Gaza Strip,” he said.
“The Israeli Army is one of the most powerful and best armed in the world, and with that, after 100 days of fighting, it is still unable to invade Gaza and claim victory. Moreover, according to the information we have been able to obtain, it has withdrawn from the north of the enclave,” said the Shiite leader. “More than 30,000 Israeli soldiers are crippled and wounded, although the true human toll has not been published by the Hebrew state, demonstrating its confusion and refusal to admit the number of casualties it has suffered,” he added. “Once the war is over, the truth will come out and the concealed figures will be revealed, and that will be catastrophic for Israel.”
“The Israeli economy has been severely hit by the war, having been at a standstill for 100 days, not least because of the multiple Houthi attacks that have targeted ships linked to Israel since October 7 in solidarity with the Palestinians. But the American and British retaliatory attacks of the last 48 hours are pure idiocy because these countries think that by putting pressure on other fronts, notably in Lebanon, Yemen, and Iraq, they are easing the pressure on the Hebrew state,” he stressed. He continued, “The United States proclaims that it does not want the war to spread, but it is they who ensure that the fronts are widened. However, if they think that the Houthis will stop attacking pro-Israeli Western ships, they are bitterly mistaken. They are just ignorant, and they are only harming maritime traffic.”
Nasrallah also said that Washington had tried to threaten Lebanon considerably by deploying aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean to stop the fighting and prevent Israel from waging a war against Lebanon, but to no avail. “We will continue to fight on our front. The Resistance will refuse any ceasefire and the resumption of negotiations on the release of the hostages before a complete cessation of hostilities. If our fronts hold firm, the Hebrew government will be forced to accept the Resistance’s conditions, especially as the southern front puts pressure on the displaced people in northern Israel. We have been ready for war for 99 days, we fear nothing, and we will fight without limits and borders,” he declared.
Hassan Nasrallah also addressed the attack carried out by his group against the Israeli air surveillance base of Meron last Saturday, with 62 rockets, in response to the assassination of Hamas’ number two, Saleh el-Arouri, in the southern suburbs of Beirut on January 2. “20 of the 62 rockets fired at the Meron base were Katyusha-type rockets, and 22 were Kornet missiles. 18 of them hit their target and killed Israeli soldiers. The Israeli Army acknowledged that the attack on the Meron base had caused “considerable damage,” although it had denied this information before we published a video proving the facts.”
The Hezb Secretary-General also welcomed what he considered to be a successful attack on the Israeli Army’s northern region command center in Safed, as well as a strike on a key target in Haifa, which Israel has yet to make official.
